Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

Well, we had a mini-heatwave this week. On Sunday, when the forecast was good, I left my place in warm sunshine to lead a roam, and, as so often happens, emerged at West Portal to find the sky completely grey. Thankfully our one-way route from the Ingleside Sundial to the Hunter’s Point one took us more or less away from the fog towards the sun. 

The next morning, however, the prevailing westerly winds had been replaced by a gentle easterly breeze, bringing the hotter air from inland over the city. I didn’t get outside much during the day, but lingered over an errand in the afternoon to feel the sun on my back as I walked down the hill and up again. I had thought about riding some during the afternoon, but Mondays have developed into admin days, and I was enjoying being productive at a slow pace, which going for a ride tends to interrupt.

A part of the productivity was figuring out what to do with Roaming Zen; Meetup announced that my next subscription would be twice as much as the current one, so I set about writing blurbs on my Meetup page directing people to the page here, and setting up a new Instagram account. When I went to cancel my subscription, though, I was presented with a pop-up message saying, “Wait, before you go,” which offered me another six months at the current rate. I suspect their price hike did not sit well with anyone (they promised great improvements to the site, but I remain a little sceptical about that), and so I will continue on the platform for the next little while at least.

It was also nice to have a slow day on Monday as the weekend had been quite busy: a number of errands on Friday, and another wedding down the Peninsula on Saturday afternoon. The location was the Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park, a very serene location blessed with more typical California weather; everything went smoothly.

This week I have a couple of days of dog-sitting in the East Bay – the pup is much more energetic than Georgie (let’s face it, most dogs are) – so I am getting a fair amount of walking in, but I am hoping to use the time to get some study in for my Dogen class, which is getting closer and closer.